Day 4 (Wed 5 Sep) This is Wednesday and it Should Still Be Belgium!

Woke early - after a quick check out the window, despite the 'red herring' in the name of the cafe in the first photo, we realized we were in still in Ieper.

Our morning break-the-jet-lag walk took in half the perimeter of the town along the medieval ramparts, including the moat.  These fortifications, once a necessity and much-updated over centuries, have been transformed into a much-cared-for ornament.  The ambience was all-over idyllic and tranquil.  What a contrast with the cataclysm that befell the town from 1914 and reached its climax in 1917, events that brought us here.  

The amount and clarity of interpretive signage was just right.

You’ll need the help of Google Translator here!

Finished our walk at the fabled war memorial, the Menin Gate, where the signage excelled itself, with a detailed bronze scale model of the memorial complete with braille explanations for blind people to 'see' with their fingers.

The memorial itself defies our descriptive skills – the lists of names, too numerous to guess at how many, give meaning to the hosts of ghostly figures in the Longstaff painting (see it at the link below).

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=menin+gate+at+midnight+print&safe=active&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=EFO7W9nx6Ayb9M%253A%252C83lR05feCHo8DM%252C_&usg=AFrqEzdiKeaShcMv7SpLqtyysE_YUMnjGQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyruK2z6rdAhUOY1AKHU-9D-IQ9QEwA3oECAAQCg#imgrc=EFO7W9nx6Ayb9M:

One ‘intrigue’, found in the list called ‘Addenda’ were four Australian soldiers of the same surname – Saunders – all from AIF Infantry battalions.  Why they all came to be in this 'discovered later' list cries out for further investigation.

A walk in the Grote Markt, to marvel at the scale and detail of reconstruction of this town after it was flattened by the descendant generation of the human beings that built it beautifully, was followed by the mundane - grocery shopping - and return ‘home’ for a siesta (after a pancake, waffle and ice-cream lunch).

Refreshed, we headed out for a visit to the Tourist Information Centre in the rebuilt Cloth Hall.  Some further exploration of the side streets was followed by consumption of the traditional Flemish beef stew, washed down with a glass of select Belgian beer.

Culinary Notes - 1) Belgian Beer has been declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage item, and 2) As for the beef stew, the town is surrounded by dairy herds and it's delicious.

We then attended to the not-to-be-missed Last Post ceremony and walked home to the unforgettable view of this enduring skyline.